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When I met my husband, he explained to me that he was a philatelist. I was a little leery of him.
Then he asked me to marry him. I said, "No, I had one of those and he was never home." He said,
"You mean a philanderer." So, when I found out what a philatelist was, I married him.
Being married to a philatelist means that when you go on your honeymoon, you have to visit the post
office in each town for a cancellation, and you stop at all the stamp stores in search of first day
cover for that city.
At home, when you get up in the morning, the breakfast table is covered with stamps being soaked off
and woe to you if you set a cup of coffee anywhere near the Minkus pages. But rainy days and foggy,
cold winters mean you will have contented companion who will be there with you and not sitting
somewhere in a tavem with his cronies or out chasing wild women.
The choicest spot in your house - ideal heat and humidity - will be reserved for the stamp collection.
Wouldn't want to risk sticky stamps! Your home will be decorated with piles of Linn's Stamp News, The
American Philatelist, and Scott's Catalogues, so each year your decor will be a different color,
courtesy of Scott's and the APS. Your bedroom decor will be distinctly international with stacks of
philatelic books piled around the edges. Under the bed are a multitude of stamps from all over the
world to be soaked "later." Talk about being "worldly"!
In any social gathering, your spouse will be well versed in foreign affairs, he will be able to
identify any obscure country that no one else has ever even heard of, and he will have a "conversation
opener" with people of other cultures. Everybody loves stamps and stamp collectors.
If you are relaxing in your recliners and your spouse falls asleep, the smile on his face means he
probably is not dreaming of a curvy lady but of finding another upside-down airplane or an imperforate
error.
At a yard sale or a flea market, nothing makes my philatelist happier than to find a shabby-looking
book or box of old stamps where the seller is unaware of what a treasure he is practically "giving away."
The expressionless look on my spouse's face while he is negotiating is a dead giveaway to me of his
unbounded delight at his find. It's enough to make him whistle for the rest of the day.
The philatelist's mailman is overburdened as the mail in and out of his house is abundant. However, the
postal workers and mailman seem to feel a special affinity to the collector and are very accommodating
to him.
It never ceases to amaze me in today's world what nice, honest, intelligent people philatelists are.
When you send them stamps, generally you receive like value or better. You can't say that about too many
people or companies nowadays.
All in all, I'm quite happy to grow old with a philatelist. I'm very proud of him and his collection.
It is a wholesome, educational, and interesting hobby, and it keeps him content and close to home.
I'm glad I married my philatelist.
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WingNet Round-the-World Flights
Visit the American Philatelic Society
WingNet Round-the-World Flights
Visit the American Philatelic Society